Hi all, I'm fairly new to the whole DSLR, I do work in Retail so I know the basics of point and shoot cameras, but DSLR are a whole new level.I brought a Canon 1100D for my 31st birthday, 2 months ago which came with the 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.

Some of my shots have been great taken some of Motorsports and some of wildlife and landscapes, they are the areas i'm interested in.

I understand the terms like ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed.

My main problem at the moment is trying to get out of the auto modes and shoot with Manual mode, now I know this comes with time and practice. If I was in any situation where I wanted to shoot something, just knowing the exact settings there and then if it was something moving like wildlife of racing cars it would be too late! - I know this comes with experience.

I have been reading some magazines and youtube clips, of course from Gordon as well, but its very easy to get too much information at a time.

I use Av mode for everything except when using flash where I use Manual. It is a semi-auto mode in that you manually change the aperture to set the depth of field and the camera works out the rest.

I would even use Av instead of Tv mode for outdoor sports as by selecting the widest aperture the camera will provide the fastest shutter speed it can for those light conditions. If the shutter speed the camera calculates is still too slow then increase ISO to bring shutter speed to something usable.

PS: If you watch Gordon's videos on here or You Tube you will notice he always reverts back to P mode when he's done so he can just grab the camera and shoot.

In the context of motorsports, I would respectfully disagree with the suggestion of setting the widest aperture at the fastest shutter speed possible for given light conditions - I made that rookie mistake and the cars look like they were parked.

I would suggest shooting at the slowest shutter speed possible (eventually) and set the aperture to match (use your metering gauge to help) then follow the car as you're shooting where you can make the car (except for its wheels) look like it's frozen while the background will be blurred, giving a better impression of speed. I wouldn't go for a really slow shutter speed right away, I'd suggest trying out a 1/250 speed to start with then you can work your way down to as slow a shutter speed as you can hold the camera steadily when tracking the subject.

Have a look at my examples below of having too fast a shutter speed, perhaps a bit too closed an aperture and where I feel I've got the balance just right.

If I was in any situation where I wanted to shoot something, just knowing the exact settings there and then if it was something moving like wildlife of racing cars it would be too late! - I know this comes with experience.

IMO, instead of waiting until you are actually in the situation, it would help to plan ahead. Of course, even a little experience will help when planning ahead, but you may be surprised how little experience it takes if you break it down:

1) think about how fast a shutter speed you want to use. i.e. how much motion blur you want.2) think about how much Depth of Field you want. i.e. how large an aperture you want.3) think about how much light there is, and given that amount of light, and the shutter speed and aperture you want to use, how high your ISO needs to be to achieve proper exposure.

Works for me - Mark

P.S. Although, in my case, since I tend to shoot with primes, there's an additional step of choosing the focal length(s) I think I'll need.

In the context of motorsports, I would respectfully disagree with the suggestion of setting the widest aperture at the fastest shutter speed possible for given light conditions - I made that rookie mistake and the cars look like they were parked.

I would suggest shooting at the slowest shutter speed possible (eventually) and set the aperture to match (use your metering gauge to help) then follow the car as you're shooting where you can make the car (except for its wheels) look like it's frozen while the background will be blurred, giving a better impression of speed. I wouldn't go for a really slow shutter speed right away, I'd suggest trying out a 1/250 speed to start with then you can work your way down to as slow a shutter speed as you can hold the camera steadily when tracking the subject.

Have a look at my examples below of having too fast a shutter speed, perhaps a bit too closed an aperture and where I feel I've got the balance just right.

I don't recommend against it but there's something to bear in mind when using CPL filters on the lenses you have. Because the front element where you attach the hood rotates on both the 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, there's a good chance that the rotation as you focus (manually or automatically) will negate any adjustments you made to the filter so you may have to set the amount of polarisation again after the the focus has been set - for action shots, it could be horribly impractical to do but for landscape or architecture where you have plenty of time, it's not too much of a hassle.

I wouldn't call such a hood useless but for lenses that have rotating front elements where you attached the hood, a flower petal-shaped lens hood is less than ideal as you can get light flares entering the lens if the hood is positioned at a certain angle. Your 18-55mm lens could suffer from such effects. I would suggest a lens hood without the "petals" so the stray light filtering is consistent regardless of the front element rotation. I'd only recommend the flower petal shaped lens hoods for lenses whose front element does NOT rotate.

I have an ET-65B clone for my 70-300mm lens, which I always use, not just to reduce the stray light flares but also to protect the front of the lens. I'd definitely recommend the ET-60 or a reasonably close third-party clone.